This period included fur trade through official government traders. Most furs were gained through trade with American Indian people.

1810:
Third census: U. S. population- 7,239,000.

1811:
The sidewheeler New Orleans, first steamboat to be built west of the Appalachians, is built in Pittsburgh, initiating steamboat navigation in the west.

1812:
Congress declares war against Great Britain. The term "Uncle Sam" is introduced. Samuel Wilson, a meat packer in Troy, New York, is called "Uncle" Sam to distinguish him from a younger Samuel Wilson from the same town. Soldiers begin to call Wilson's meat "Uncle Sam's" because of the stamp "U.S." on the provision boxes.

1813:
Zebulon Pike is killed leading U.S. troops in an attack on York, the capitol of Upper Canada. American forces burn York. Captain Oliver Hazard Perry defeats the British fleet on Lake Erie.

1814:
Washington, D.C. is burned by the British. Francis Scott Key's poem "The Star Spangled Banner" is written during the bombardment of Baltimore's Fort McHenry.

1815:
Troops under Andrew Jackson defeat British forces in the Battle of New Orleans before word of the Treaty of Ghent reaches the U.S. Peace brings renewed western expansion into the Mississippi Valley, from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico.

1816:
The first hand printing press is constructed in America by George Clymer of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

1817:
James Monroe is inaugurated as the fifth President of the United States. Construction of the Erie Canal is authorized by the New York legislature. The canal, linking Albany on the Hudson River with Buffalo on Lake Erie, will become a significant artery in the westward movement of Americans from the East Coast.

1818:
Thirteen stripes on the U.S. flag are made constant by law. Upon admission of each new state in the Union, a single white star will be added to the flag.

1819:
Congress authorizes an annual sum of $10,000.00 as a "civilization fund" to teach agriculture, reading, writing, and arithmetic to American Indian people, in hopes that they will adopt the ways of white society.

1820:
Congress adopts the Missouri Compromise: Maine is to be admitted as a free state, Missouri as a slave state. Slavery will be excluded from the territory of the Louisiana Purchase north of 36 degrees 30 minutes latitude. Fourth census: U.S. population- 9,638,453.

<1800-1810|1820-1830>